IDE → Terminal → Canvas
I've been experimenting this week with AI-native Figma alternatives like pencil.dev and paper.design. You describe the product, and they create full fledged "designs".
The designs aren't polished, and their code integrations are broken, yet I couldn't help but think that this is how we'll be building products soon.
Development interfaces shifts when coding agents are able to handle more on their own. We started with IDEs because this is where developers were, but also because we needed low level access to the code, and confirm that the edits are valid.
When agents became more capable, we stopped operating at individual files and let the agents run autonomously in the terminal, making lots of changes at once.
The trend will continue.
Canvases are the perfect form factor for the next phase. Where coding agents are capable enough to be disconnected from the code. Canvases will allow you to:
- See the product and flows visually
- Jump into and run any part of the flow
- Watch the agents test the flow live
- Run experiments in parallel
- Quickly zoom out and navigate to different parts
It's a more natural way of building products. It could be that the next coding interface is a canvas.